“There were five or six lines attributed to Spock”: One The Next Generation Movie Did Such a Massive Disservice to Leonard Nimoy’s Star Trek Legacy He Refused To be in it

After spending the greater part of one’s career playing a certain role, it comes as an insult if the actor is treated as expendable and viewed with disrespect. Leonard Nimoy must have felt the exact same way after one Star Trek film’s script didn’t quite fit the bill on Spock’s behalf.

The late actor’s contribution to portraying Spock on screen was so invaluable that his Vulcan alter-ego almost became synonymous with him over time. In hindsight, however, the mutual relationship of respect and understanding that Leonard Nimoy and Spock held for each other shaped the future of both these characters — in real life and in fiction, respectively.

It is no wonder then that Nimoy felt it pertinent to protect his Star Trek legacy by whatever means necessary after he felt his rank within the franchise was being threatened.

Star Trek Shucks Its Commitment to the Old Guard

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy have been an integral part of the Star Trek franchise since its conception in 1966. Alongside Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, and Walter Koenig, the entire cast of Star Trek: The Original Series established a frontier in the sci-fi space operatic adventure genre.

Within a few years of launching The Original Series, the authority of the franchise was set in stone as fans realized the sheer scale of the franchise and its impact over generations to come.

However, the same could not be said of Star Trek executive producer Rick Berman who came up with the story of Star Trek Generations, a follow-up to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The first in a series of four The Next Generation films, Generations served as a changing of the guard from Kirk to Picard.

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However, the immaturity with which the transference of power was held within the franchise showed not only a severe disrespect toward the founders of the franchise but was also symbolic of the pride that comes before the fall.

Star Trek Throws Leonard Nimoy Under the Bus

After spending half his career crafting and perfecting the role of Spock in the Star Trek franchise, Leonard Nimoy felt something was amiss when he was handed the script of Star Trek Generations. It was as if someone had deliberately ushered in the older actors just to be rid of them, giving way to Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard and his new crew.

Generations began in 2293 with the maiden voyage of U.S.S. Enterprise-B which had the crew encountering an unknown space entity called the Nexus. Kirk was presumably killed after being sucked into the Nexus and the events proceed 78 years into the future, officially heralding the origin of The Next Generation era. There, Picard and Kirk’s crew are left to band together to face and defeat the hostile space entity and the villain who seeks to control it.

The problem, however, with the 1994 film was the place assigned to the older cast within it. The Original Series members had seemingly no real purpose to serve in the new film other than to bring their established fame and lend a legacy status to it. As such, no particular story or dialogue was assigned to the individual cast of The Original Series. They were only called upon to aid a plot where the main purpose was to kill off Kirk.

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In a 2007 interview with TrekMovie, Nimoy revealed his conversation with executive producer Rick Berman, after he was offered the role in Star Trek Generations:

There was not a Spock role. There were five or six lines attributed to Spock in a scene with Chekov and Uhura and Kirk and whoever else was there, but it had nothing to do with Spock. They were not Spock-like in any way. I said to Rick Berman, ‘You could distribute these lines to any one of the other characters and it wouldn’t make any difference.’ And that is exactly what he did. There was no Spock function in the script.

Similarly, the remainder of the cast, including Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and DeForest Kelley turned down their respective roles in the film. Doohan and Koenig were the only ones who followed their Captain, William Shatner, to the end of their expendable legacy.

Star Trek Generations is available to stream on MGM+ and Paramount+

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